Got it made with lemonade in the shade!

Sort of!


This man is on a bicycle. Yes, it is hot here, but the people do not like to look "tanned" either, so they are always walking around with umbrellas--usually ladies though. This man "Jerry-rigged" this broken umbrella. Notice the top part of the umbrella has a soap bottle taped to it to help hold it up then it was taped to two section on his bicycle to hold it up. Pretty genius if you ask me! I love inventive people.

Rats!

Don't let these sweet faces fool you! These dogs are killers! Rat killers that is!

This dog's name is Izi!

This one's name is Raja.

These dogs aren't technically ours, they belong to the house and whoever stays here. It is important here to have a dog--a black dog at that to keep thieves out and also rats. 

I was very  happy when I got here--blissfully in ignorance I suppose. I had heard that there were rats everywhere, but I hadn't up until today actually seen one here. I just thought they didn't like us!

About 2 months ago we had some friends over and we were sitting in our kitchen after dark playing some games when they said, "Did you hear that? That was a rat squeak." I was really quite content never knowing what that sound really was.

It was at this point that our friends asked us if our dogs were rat dogs. What does that even mean? Aren't all dogs rat dogs? Turns out they are not, but I had no idea if ours were or not. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Every night at dusk and through the night along with all the dogs barking, which has become quite soothing--really! I also hear another sound, not so soothing. All over the place. Every time I hear the squeak I pray for God to protect our house from rats, cockroaches, and bedbugs--which seem to be the 3 big enemies around here.

It seems like whenever I hear a squeak outside, relatively near our house our dogs go nuts and start barking, so I had a pretty good idea that they were rat dogs.

Today I was reassured! This morning we woke up and found a half eaten rat near our gate outside! I know that sounds disgusting--however, alive--really bad, dead--good, half eaten--even better!

I know have a greater appreciation for our furry friends!!!

Are those flies?

This pasal (shop) is about a 3 minute walk from my house and where I buy most of my groceries. At first I only bought vegetables there. Then I realized they had rice, flour, sugar, cereal, soda, wai wai (our version of Raemen noodles), snacks, water, shampoo, toothpaste. Every time I go I look and find something else.

These people (husband and wife) are very nice too. They are always teaching me new things to say. They are patient with my slow Nepali speaking, and seem to love it when we come by. Instead of trying to buy everything in one trip, I almost go every day so I can practice more language learning.

They always give us a good price, so I don't even haggle here like I would do at other shops. Several times I have brought up a vegetable from down the road like a certain type of lettuce or asparagus or something and they will special order it for me and give me a great price on it. I'm excited about the day when I will be able to tell them about Jesus.




Across the street from the vegetable shop is this meat shop. Those black dots you see are flies.




I"m not positive because I didn't want to get any closer, but I'm pretty sure there were intestines in that white basket on the table next to the scale. Now my question is, if you could get past the disgusting mental part, and actually buy this meat, if you cooked this meat thoroughly or the chickens they also have would you kill all of the bacteria in it from being left out. My mind tells me "no" because of the health conditions, but the other part of me says, "Doesn't enough heat kill everything?"



This meat shop is where I shop. Can you see the difference?



They keep the meat in the freezer/refrigerator until you buy it and then take it out and cut it. Mentally, this place is better, but if enough heat does kill everything then the meats are the same.

Our all time favorite!! The Yak Opera

This one was hilarious. I pieced together several videos I had so you could get an idea of this. We were sitting on the front row on this side so when the yak was near us it was only 6 inches from our feet. I thought at first the kids, especially Abby would be scared, but they loved it.

There were two men in side the yak costume. At one point the people behind us were telling Paul it was real then at that exact moment everything everywhere got real quiet and Paul said, "No it's people," everyone started laughing at him. It was so funny. See if you can hear it in the video.

First there is a husband and wife, then enters crazy yak herder, then of course the yak. The video is right at 4 minutes, near the end the yak does something really funny, so keep watching--it's worth it.

A Cultural Dance for the Lhasa Tibetans

My boys really liked this one. Singing and dancing has to be difficult at the same time. Can you imagine playing an instrument and dancing? I don't remember the name of this instrument sort of like a guitar.

Tibetan Celebration part 2 (Amdo)

This is done in traditional Amdo clothing. It is a song of praise to the holy Llama of that region. The dance was very beautiful, but it made me sad. I prayed that the gospel would soon be translated into the Amdo Tibetan language so that these people would be saved, and then they could praise, sing, and dance for the one true God and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

A quote that was made a few years back that spurred us into going into missions was this, "You could walk for weeks and weeks among the Amdo Nomatic people and never meet one person who has even heard the name of Jesus."

How sad this is!

Please pray for these people. Pray for more labourers! We need more help.

Tibetan Celebration

This past weekend we were invited to a special event. We weren't sure what was going to happen. It was to celebrate some students that had come from America to learn of different cultures. They had finished their studies and would be heading home soon. Our whole family was invited so we went. I packed some coloring papers and different things for the kids to do just in case they wouldn't be interested in what was going on.

Boy was I wrong!!

They had a group of Tibetan dancers and singers. It was kind of like a play they put on for us. I took a bunch of videos of what was going on. Rather than show you all the videos at the same time I will post one every few days so that you won't get bored with it. But I can tell you being there live was awesome. Our whole family sat stunned for an hour and a half watching--even the kids. It was great.

Here is the first one.

They would do a dance and then stop and talk for a little bit like a musical skit or something. I just wish I knew what they were saying.

This is also the traditional festival clothing.

The men normally wear western type clothing. 

The ladies clothing is somewhat similar just less ornamental.

This is what you would see in every day wear for the Tibetan ladies.